[SPOILERS] A threesome becomes a twosome

[DaveV]

I agree with that tech path, but the Illians are currently research Military Strategy. We should be careful about delaying Gibbon too long.

[plako]

Ilians can't research Deception.

[plako]

After thinking this, I'll switch Ilians 100% gold and Lurchuip 100% research. This way we can improve Deception ETA 1-2T and also can have some gold to rush Gibbon. Please time things so that you would get as much overflow hammers as possible when we finish Deception. I also think some of your inspiring Adepts needs to be improving mana nodes so that we get all ready. Especally the node near your capital should be ready anf gifted to Ilians asap so that I can Rush the tower and we can start meta magic nodes. Node marked for Ilians (on your side of the border) is ready in 1-2T. I'll also send mud golem to road your mana node near capital.

[DaveV]

Since there are no Esus disciples, the only way to spread that religion to a new city is to get lucky and have a unit born with Esus religion (or to research Bowyers and build a Nightwatch, which is guaranteed to start with Esus). If it's founded in a Luchuirp city, I think you should crank out scouts until you get an Esus one, then use that guy to spread to a Balseraph city. It costs 67 gold to spread.

In my test games, the engineer was only able to rush about 80% of the tower, so the city where we build it needs either a very big population or decent hammer production.

I just had an adept born in my capital, so I should be able to finish that node in two turns.

[plako]

When founding Esus we'll get a Nightwatch. That is not dependant on whether we've a Bowyers or not so we can start spreading CoE immediately. The problem is moving it fast enough to your SotC city. In the end we might be better of just building it in the founding city mostly with cash rushing.

[plako]

I did convert the nations as I said before and did some Micro mnagement and we should get Deception in 4T.

[plako]

Haven't checked yet in-game, but Elthoc probably got a tech and most reasonable assumption is that it is Feudalism (even if feels a bit early so I might be wrong). Assuming they'll start full mobilization that might affect to our direction also. We need to pay close attention to the graphs. At this point we just need Deception and after that we can tone down research and start our own mobilization.

[DaveV]

Haven't checked yet in-game, but Elthoc probably got a tech and most reasonable assumption is that it is Feudalism (even if feels a bit early so I might be wrong).

I checked; it was Currency. So we have a little bit more time.

[plako]

This will get annoying. We want Elementalism before Alteration. Fireballs would be easiest route to hit Griffons. There are also couple of wolf riders north from my northernmost city (killed my scout there). btw. You can't attack Goblins with your adept because of the Griffons.

Of course capturing our own Griffons would do too, but that takes longer than researching Decepetion + Alteration so I don't think we should bother.

[plako]

Got Great engineer at the end of Lurchuip turn.